1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to management of multiple messaging sessions, and more particularly to management of multiple messaging sessions between a user and various pals with a graphical user interface.
2. Description of Related Art
Messaging using various desktop and mobile messaging-enabled digital devices over networks has become commonplace. Messaging methods are varied and include voice messaging and various forms of electronic messaging such as paging, email, fax, instant message exchange, short message services (“SMS”), voice over internet protocol, conference, and chat. Recently, instant message exchange has become very popular. A number of companies offer various solutions for instant message exchange over networks such as the internet, including Yahoo! Inc., America Online, Inc., and Microsoft Corporation. Typically, these solutions facilitate the exchange of instant messages between the user of a client personal computer system and others, which are commonly referred to by such terms as “pals,” “buddies,” “friends,” “contacts” or “strangers” and are generally referred to herein as “pals.” These pals may be people or machines such as servers, the later commonly being referred to as “bots” instead of pals. A pal may also be a group of people or bots. Instant messages are exchanged essentially instantaneously, or in “real time,” superseding the pace of many other messaging techniques.
Many of the well known solutions for instant message exchange over the internet are based on a client-server model. The clients are personal computers (“PCs”), personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), phones and browsers (including Microsoft® Internet Explorer and Netscape® Navigator). The applications running on these clients are implemented in a variety of software languages and with a variety of protocols, including the wireless access protocol (“WAP”)™ protocol, short message service (“SMS”), hypertext markup language (“HTML”), JavaScript, Java applets, Brew™ script, J2ME script, and C, C++, or XML code sections. Many instant message exchange solutions work in conjunction with a server based host application over the internet network or wireless networks to carry out instant message exchange. The server component manages message traffic, delivery, and reporting, while the client component displays an instant message exchange window to shown the received message. Alternatively, some solutions, especially those for advanced types of communications devices, do not require a server based instant messaging host application for communications once a connection is made, and may use peer-to-peer communications instead. These solutions typically are implemented with a pre-installed or downloaded client application on, for example, a personal computer, which manages message traffic, delivery, and reporting.
Various distribution techniques for the various solutions are also well known. Client applications, including applications that support peer-to-peer messaging as well as browser plug-ins, may be preinstalled or in firmware, or made available in software form from computer-readable media, such as software loaded from storage media, including magnetic storage media such as diskette, tape and fixed disk, semiconductor storage media such as various types of flash memory cards, and optical storage media such as CD-ROM and DVD-ROM, and software downloaded from distribution media such as networks, including wired and wireless networks, local and wide area networks, and the Internet. Scripts and short code segments furnished to general purpose browsers typically are downloaded from a network.
A typical feature of the various instant message exchange solutions is keeping track of and visually indicating whether the user's authorized pals are online or offline. Instant messages may be sent to and received from any of the user's pals who are online. Other typical features include management of the various pals, including the grouping of individual pals, the addition and deletion of pals, and the setting of privacy options; multiparty real time chats with pals; and file exchange with pals. Some solutions alert the user when particular pals come online, provide for voice chat or even multiparty voice conference calls, offer instant message archiving, and permit sending instant messages to offline pals. Some solutions provide an electronic whiteboard which allows the user to draw images and type notes to share with others.
Typically, these solutions handle the exchange of instant messages between the user and multiple individual pals and pal groups by spawning multiple separate windows in a graphical user interface, which typically is formed in the display memory of the user's digital device and viewed by the user on a screen, which may be a monitor of a personal computer or the LED (light emitting diode) or TFT (thin film transistor) screen of a personal data assistant. Examples of such solutions for the personal computer include Bantu (www.bantu.com), Yahoo! (www.yahho.com), Jabber (www.jabber.com), AOL (www.aol.com), MSN (www.msn.com), Ipulse (www.oz.com), OMNI (www.Emphatech.com), Odigo (www.odigo.com), Babbler (www.babbler.com), ICQ (www.icq.com), POWWOW (legacy site at www.tribalvoice.com), NomadIQ (www.omnisky.com), Jmessenger (www.jmessenger.com), MessageVine (www.messagevine.com), and Paltalk (www.paltalk.com). A solution from Trillian (www.trillian.cc) also spawns multiple windows, all of which can be confined to one larger window or placed anywhere on the user's screen.
Some of these solutions, such as, for example, Bantu and PowWow, use tabs to organize and selectively display lists of pals and other information within a single window. Generally speaking, tabs are commonly used by many applications to organize and display lists of information, such as, for example, preferences in such programs as Microsoft Word.
Unfortunately, the use of multiple separate windows to handle the exchange of instant messages between a user and multiple individual pals and pal groups creates a cluttered appearance on the monitor of the user's computer which some users find distracting or inconvenient. Moreover, instant message exchange applications often are used while other programs are running. Some of these other programs may be communications programs that handle such messaging as facsimile and email. The display of instant message exchange windows over other communications program windows, which are likely to have a different look and feel and be based on conceptually different control and navigation techniques, only adds to the clutter and may confuse some users attempting to manage the multiple messaging sessions.